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Despite whatever opinion you hold on this topic, the Federal Government is functioning as the Founding Fathers had intended. When the electorate is staunchly divided on a topic or issue, the elected officials are supposed to get bogged down in debate instead of just having legislation fly right through.

Unless you work directly for the government, it appears that the government shutdown doesn’t really have an impact on our lives. Because of the classification of “exempted” versus “non-exempted” (used to be termed “essential” and “non-essential” but that language was considered too strong), most of the services that we enjoy on a daily basis will still be in tact.

You can get an accurate accounting of the effect of the “government shutdown” here. It is an excellently detailed story by the Washington Post.

All active duty and roughly half of the civilians employed by the Department of Defense are deemed exempted so we will still be protected.

Only about 33% of the Department of Transportation will not be working. All air traffic controllers are exempted but much of the airport security is non-exempt.

The Department of HomelandSecurity will only be affected around 14%. Border Patrol agents are exempted.

More than 2/3 of the Social Security Administration will stay on to process checks.

85% of the Department of Justice is exempted, such as FBI and drug enforcement agents and federal prison employees.

Around 96% of the Department of Veterans Affairs will remain on, most importantly the hospital workers.

The Post Office is open for business because they are “self-funded”. I laughed when I read that because they run annual deficits in the billions. So we still get our mail.

Most other departments will be hit pretty heavily, including the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Last week, HUD released its Contingency Plan which details which departments and services will remain open.

This one affects me and my clients directly because all condominium project approval processing with HUD is halted until its appropriations return.

I guess I could have stayed home today…

However, single-family endorsement processing and some other facets of HUD are exempted. Therefore, mortgage loan transactions can continue as anticipated and lenders can expect to receive their endorsements from HUD.

At any rate, many political experts believe that this work stoppage won’t last more than a week. Both sides will feel strong pressure but it will probably be the Republicans that cave as the President is basically calling them bullies. Not to mention the debt ceiling debate is right around the corner where this will start all over again.

Image courtesy of Damien Brandon/freedigitalphotos.net

The Condominium Project Approval Team at ReadySetLoan is dedicated to helping condominium projects across the nation to obtain their approvals with FHA and the VA or become recertified with FHA. We have assisted nearly 200 condominiums and we can help your association.

ReadySetLoan is an active member of the Connecticut and New England chapters of the Community Associations Institute (CAI) and is a frequent contributor to Common Interest Magazine as an expert in FHA/VA condominium project approvals.

Please contact us with any questions regarding FHA or VA condominium project approvals. You can email me at askeric@readysetloan.comor call me at 404-433-4565. I will be happy to answer any of your questions.

Comments

Thank you for the info on the government shutdown. No effect on us directly is good.

Posted by Elite Home Sales Team, A Tenacious and Skilled Real Estate Team (Elite Home Sales Team OC) over 5 years ago

It is causing serious problems on the mortgage approval process. Lenders can't get transcripts from IRS or verification's on social security numbers. This is causing problems on all mortgages, forget the government loans.